February 19, 2014
Introduction: In this article, Scott Phillips tells an incredible story of a brother and sister who bumped into each other—after an absence of 42 years—and as each began telling stories about their childhood, it dawned on each other that the “stranger” they were talking to was actually their sibling! Scott is a genealogical historian and owner of Onward To Our Past® genealogy services.
All of you that follow me here on the GenealogyBank blog, on my website at Onward To Our Past®, or on the Onward To Our Past® Facebook page, know how much I love all the genealogy information found in the massive newspaper database of GenealogyBank.com. Over and over these newspapers have been the source of a wide variety of truly amazing “Ah-Ha!” genealogy moments for me, such as the time I discovered a newspaper article that revealed the occupation of my great grandfather. Another time, again thanks to an old newspaper article, I was thrilled to find a photo of an ancestor that is the only known photograph we have of him.
I recently asked the good folks at GenealogyBank.com what they heard from their subscribers using their service—did other family historians have similar genealogy research success stories?
In just a few minutes I received the following testimonial from a member of the GenealogyBank.com support team. This was written by M. F. of New Hampshire:
I use GenealogyBank to search out additional “color” to add to the family tree, so that there is more than just names, dates, and places. I love looking at the anniversary stories, the wedding announcements, and the gossip columns. When I found this story involving some members of the family tree, I just had to share with you.
A Serendipitous Family Reunion
When I checked out the article M. F. had found, I could plainly see why this GenealogyBank.com subscriber was so excited.
Not only was this story extremely moving about a brother and sister serendipitously meeting, after 42 years, but also there was a marvelous family photograph of both the brother and sister in the article.
Talk about an “Ah-Ha!” moment! Not only a great family reunion story, but also a photo of the siblings, details about the lives of both individuals, and the fact that there was another brother living, at that time, in Green Island, Canada. It must have been amazing when the brothers and their sister got together after more than 40 years! I hope they had a nice big pot of tea and plenty of scones on hand, because I am thinking they had an incredible amount to share.
The touching family story shared by M. F. is a wonderful example of just one of the hidden treasures that await all of us who love genealogy and family history in the more than 6,500 historical newspapers of GenealogyBank.com that stretch from 1690 to Today and cover all 50 of our United States. Perhaps the best part of all is the newspaper reporter’s adherence to those wonderful 5 W’s of good newspaper reporting that give us genealogy fans answers to those always crucial questions of Who, What, Where, When, and Why!
Members: Share Your Favorite “Ah-Ha!” Moments
So let me know in the comments section below: what has been your favorite “Ah-Ha!” moment from GenealogyBank.com? Thanks! I bet you have some great family discoveries!
My biggest AH-HA moment happened today. I’ve been a subscriber to GenealogyBank for a few years, and I find a few articles each year that pertain to the family I’m searching, so the combined “finds” pay for my subscription. But today’s “find” was worth a whole year of subscription!
I couldn’t find two ancestors (a mother and daughter) in the 1940 census in any state, so I assumed they had been missed, their names miswritten, or they had possibly died between 1930 and 1940. As a last resort, I searched GenealogyBank today hoping to find an obituary or funeral notice.
Instead of an obituary, the search resulted in many 1946 newpaper articles which revealed that the two ancestors had moved out of their home state, and had lived for 15 years under a different surname. One of the ancestors was murdered in 1946, while living under the assumed surname in another state, and the details of the investigation revealed the true surname of both ancestors, and where they were from. The two men involved in the murder were from the same county as the two ancestors, and they had been living for 15 years with the ancestors under the same assumed surname. One of the men was killed by a train a few days after the murder; I don’t know if the other man was ever tried or convicted for his role in the murder (I haven’t finished searching for those articles yet).
The articles I did find answered many questions I had about the two ancestors, so reading them was like closure!
WOW! What a terrific story and thank you for sharing it! What an amazing find and best of luck on the rest of the story!
Scott